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Here is what gets me. The Trump supporters were so proud and quick to tout him for operation Warp Speed...he actually got the vaccine done in record time. Now that Biden is in power and asking people to get vaccinated the same Trump supporters think the vaccine is the equivalent to getting a chip implanted in their brain. Even though there is case law that supports mandatory vaccines for all (Jacobson v. Massachusetts), I am all about free will and choice. There is a difference for the military...Ironically taking that oath to serve and protect the Constitution gave up all sorts of Constitutional rights. If the vaccine is legally approved there is little resistance ground to stand on. I think there most certainly should be further discussion and research on those who have already had COVID. Having had a nasty fight with COVID....vaccinated or non-vaccinated, I hope you don't get it.

I am most certainly not an immunologist but I did see a story using this very argument. The immunologist they were interviewing noted that part of the problem is the unvaccinated population in below herd immunity level so the virus continues to mutate, which lowers the effectiveness of the current vaccines. If our population was indeed at herd immunity then mutations would be far less likely and those that are vaccinated would be far more effective at fighting even asymptomatic infections....thus reducing the spread.

Sure is a good thing we had to put pulling out on hold because of the election/transfer of power. It really helped to wait until the fighting season when were up against a tight deadline. Listen up young pups, remember this shit next time politicians are playing fucky games with your lives and make your life decisions appropriately.

After the Taliban said they would not accept an extension of the August 31 Deadline, President Biden announced he will not extend our presence beyond Aug 31. Even Pentagon Spokesman Baghdad Kirby stated it will take days (72 hours), to extract all U.S. forces. Realistically that means this thing starts to get even more ugly in 2-3 days. AND....The Taliban have now said it is no longer safe for Afghans to leave the country, they need the engineers and professionals to help rebuild the country. Let the massacre ensue. FINALLY...there is an intelligence paper with credible sources that says the Taliban and Al Qaeda plan to launch an attack on the Kabul airport. This should bring down the administration.

Can't help with the VAERS data, other than that it's self-reported, which leads to some wild inconsistencies in the raw data. CDC doesn't use it alone as a decision making tool...it's a canary in a coal mine to show when something may need further study. As for natural immunity - https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm

Well, it was a Strike Eagle... so both could be true.

It's only money, you'll make more. Plus I'd have to drive a long way to rent a Stearman, and I'm stuck to their rules and timeline.

Fair enough, I'll bounce the ball back at ya: 1. Sure. But the Manhattan project was relatively small scale with a justifiable motive. To be able to annihilate the Japanese because they were trying to annihilate us. What is the motive here of the pro vax people? Private corporations want to sell bogus vaccines (at the expense of a bunch of other corporations who have lost money over this shit show) to make money and all of the worlds governments are all "in on it"? I agree any government is capable of royally fing up and feeding horse shit to its own people. (WMD in Iraq??) But you're talking about such a massive scale here...is it possible? Sure. Likely? Not really. We make decisions based on likelihood. Could an asteroid hit the earth tomorrow and send us all to our doom? Yeaup. But are you gunna go spend every penny in your bank account on a wild night of hookers and blow because there's a .00001 percent chance you'll die of an asteroid tomorrow? 2. Agree, the healthy you are better off you're gunna be. Not everybody gets great health tho. Some people are older, some have asthma, etc. If you are totally healthy, maybe you don't really need the shot. Cool, I get it man. Getting the shot isn't just about helping yourself, its about helping someone else who may not be able to defend against the virus. Maybe that doesn't work for you and that is fine, but why on earth would you join a branch of the armed forces? 3. Yea that's fair, I agree. But you cannot whine than when something like a cruiseline (PRIVATE company) says get a shot or no boat trip. Go start your own cruise line with no rules if you don't like it. You're anti-socialism right? If there is a demand...deliver the supply! This whole vax issue gets hairy with public school districts. Best solution IMO is to leave it up to each district to vote on it IMO, majority wins. 4. No it's good too question, you have my backing there. Also you don't want to be ridiculed and said you should't be made fun of for not getting a shot, but you also said you don't care about Pfizer employees feelings. Two way street than. But this isn't about feelings. You're accusing Pfizer, Moderna and JJ employees of intentionally defrauding the American (and the world) public with a bogus shot. That's a mighty big claim. Agreed, the government has shown how bad it can be at tasks (I hear you on the Afghanistan pull out...utter disaster, and there is indisputable outrage from both sides of the aisle). But the government didn't make the shots, capitalism and the private sector did. So you don't trust the federal government, whose job it is to (even if they suck at it) to regulate private industry so stuff doesn't get out of hand...but private industry to you is entirely corrupted, a bunch of money making elitist CEOs with no morals trying to jam an necessary shot in your arm? So what is your solution? Who is it we should all be trusting instead? You don't feel like you need the shot so why should the an employer/cruise lines/the military be able to restrict you? I hear you, that does suck. But I also feel like I can do 90 mph more safely than half the people on the road can do 65 mph. I felt I coulda gotten my PPL at 20 hours, but the FAA made me pay to get 40. I feel fine ingesting lead paint flakes, but lead paint has been banned. I just don't get exactly what your problem or solution is. What policy do you actually want changed? Has anyone dragged you out of your civilian house and jabbed you in the arm yet, like they would've in China? So the military (Federal Goverment) wants you to get it a shot and you're afraid it might harm you? What about when they shove you into Taiwan cuz some dick politician in China decide he wanted to unnecessarily invade and get a bunch of people killed for no reason...a stupid covid shot is gunna be the least of your worries, no?

@brabus I understand what you are saying but I don't think it survives contact with our current reality. The problem is how do you PID all the high risk people. We still don't know why but the virus can have a severe impact on people who would seemingly have zero risk. I have no comorbidities and brother it humbled me. My COVID experience was crazy. I had a low grade fever and some intestinal issues on Christmas Eve. Christmas day I actually felt better. I had flown my family up to DC in my plane and my annual was going to expire on the 31st so the morning of the 26th I did a self-assessment and decided to fly home...no fever...no other symptoms except fatigue. I stopped in Georgia for gas and grabbed the courtesy car to go grab some lunch. I made it to the main road and something told me to just head back to the plane and get home. Still minus symptoms I took some preventative Tylenol, gassed up and took off for Florida. I landed, taxied to my hangar, backed my truck out of the hangar to load it and WHAM it hit me like a ton of bricks. Big fever spike, aches, chills...all at once, I almost called a friend to put my plane away for me. Thank god it didn't happen in flight. I felt like shit for about five days and started to feel better, you know the feeling when you have the flu and can tell you are on the backside...that is how I felt. I went to bed thinking a good nights sleep and I would be better...the next morning it came roaring back even worse than before. My family was still in DC and they all had it. Both my mother in law and father in law ended up in the hospital...My mother in law was given, steroids, breathing treatments, Remdesivir and LAST RITES. The doctor literally said "there is nothing else we can do and her infection numbers are still going up." Thankfully she turned the corner the next day. Eight months later my father in law still feels the effects. He has comorbidities , she does not other than being in her 70's (very fit and active). I was home alone and kept getting worse...my best friends were checking in and bringing me food but man it sucked. My pulseox actually went below 90 and at the insistence of my sister who is a nurse, I asked for help...the response from the Military doctor was "take Motrin and cough drops." Thank god for my sister who did a conference call from Massachusetts and let the doctor have it. "He needs steroids NOW!" The doctor was an asshole and replied "using what rationale"...she again unloaded on the doctor and mentioned the hundreds of COVID patients she had been treating..."His pulseox is below 90%, his lungs are swollen, he needs help NOW!" The doctor changed her tune and prescribed steroids. I picked them up an hour later and within 30 minutes of taking the first pill I knew it was the magic pill! My pulseox jumped to 94% and I started what would be a 12 week recovery. I had a follow up with that doctor who said "Wow, great to know the steroids work, you were my first COVID patient." I am a retired dude but after the fact I called the Med Group/CC and filed an official complaint...which I understand they did take seriously. I have a great friend from High School who is a PhD Nurse in Miami...one of the hot spots. The stories she tells are horrifying...truly horrifying. She is in the middle of the second wave right now and almost all of the patients are unvaccinated and a surprising number have no comorbidites. I've talked to her many times because I truly wondered about the vaccine and the conditions at ground zero. She keeps saying they all wish they had gotten the vaccine. I have another friend form high school and her 26 year old son has been in the hospital for 10 days...dude has no comorbidities and is an ultra-marathoner...no vaccine. I have a few rental properties, one of my tenants just spent two weeks in the hospital and is now home on oxygen. He is 32, no commodities and is again very active and fit...no vaccine. My sampling is not scientific but it is enough for me to realize there is still much we don't know. Again, I think people have a choice but given all I've seen and heard I hope they get the vaccine.

Vaccinated spread it at the same rate as unvaccinated IF THEY GET INFECTED. But the vaccines help reduce the total number of infected people, which helps prevent the spread to others.

Also FYI, don’t google hot COVID vaccinated squatting redhead from any government computer, it gets weird real quick.

To add...don't see you as an enemy dude. You're free to post your opinions just like anyone else in this country, even if we disagree.

I'd bring your plane for one simple reason: you're probably going to sit casual status before you start for a while and have absolutely nothing to do. Once you start UPT, that's a different story. If you asked me then, GA flying would have been the last thing would have wanted to do on weekends during UPT. Realistically you're going to be flying or simming demanding graded events every workday and studying/chairflying for at least part of every weekend. It gets tiring. And unless you are an absolute addict, you're probably going to want at least a day or two off from flying per week. Still, casual status alone is good enough reason to bring your plane and keep your skills sharp. And you might sit casual after UPT as well waiting on SERE and follow on training dates. Hell, you might even FAIP and then you'll be really glad you brought your GA plane, because then you'll be able to escape the shithole towns they decided to put UPT bases in.

This thread is useless without pics.

Public Service Announcement: There is an ignore function under your account settings for the board.

Yea, not uncommon situation at all. Without getting your hopes up too high, the vast majority of these cases went OK. The doc (optometrist) can hopefully help sort things out.

Wow.

Yervis, Agree with you 100% on point #1. Regarding point #2, I'm not sure the AF cares that much. Let me give you an example. My son was in ROTC with the intention of becoming an AF pilot (he's since decided the military isn't for him and is going strictly commercial). At the "Welcome to ROTC" ceremony, I asked the ROTC commander if they did any type of medical screening before bringing in young folks whose sole goal was to be a pilot. I cited the example of color vision. About 8-10% of males are color deficient and it's relatively easy to screen. He said they couldn't afford to spend a couple of thousand dollars on the device. One of the first young fellows from my son's class failed color vision at WP and was devastated. Seemed easily avoidable to me. Can't change it (a person's color vision), but would have been a whole lot better to know before spending two or three years working towards an AF pilot slot. I get the whole thing about ROTC being there to create officers, not pilots, but that seems like a bit of a bait and switch to me. As you said, the AF is a bureaucracy. Nothing more. For the most part the individuals who work there are great- some of the best people I've ever met. But, in the end, big blue is there for big blue no matter what anyone says. Don't get me wrong, it can be a great career. I was married into it (i.e. a dependent) for twenty years and spent almost the same amount of time working there myself as a civilian, but in the end the organization's number one goal is self preservation at any cost, even at the expense a lot of good people.

I get it, he hates Trump but I don’t understand why he insists on constantly pointing fingers at the GOP rather then the actual decision makers now. He might as well go ahead and switch parties… https://ktvz.com/videos/2021/08/22/gop-congressman-places-blame-on-trump-admin-for-crisis-in-afghanistan-they-set-this-up-to-fail-3/

Man… the meme generation of this has been spectacularly dark. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To your question "Does an FAA FC1 translate to military flying duty whatsoever?" Simply put, not really. An FAA medical is based strictly on whether you currently meet the standards for a given class and if you are expected to maintain those standards for some limited length of time (I would assume they are looking for something like 6-12 months of stability since that's how long FAA physicals are typically good for). An AF physical, certainly an initial physical, is based on expected stability of 6-10 years depending on the class. For example, a pilot applicant has a ten year commitment, thus they want someone who will continue to maintain physical standards for that length of time. The FAA AME that is signing your medical doesn't have any vested interest in your flying longevity- only that you meet standards until it's time to renew the certificate The USAF flight doc is employed by the AF to help determine where the AF spends its training dollars. There's no question that getting disqualified sucks. And there was certainly a period of time recently where the AF was extremely short of pilots- and it looks like it's going to happen again soon. But, don't confuse a pilot shortage with a problem finding qualified people to fly. The last year I was at Wright-Patt, we medically qualified more than twice the number of people the AF could train in one year. It's a retention problem, not a recruiting problem. Bottom line is that the pilot selection process is a numbers game. There are people who get lucky and people who get the short end of the stick. I always encourage a person to keep trying and things may eventually work out, but not everyone who wants to fly is going to get that chance.

I’m sure it’s written down somewhere… Anybody wanna guess at the amount of cost and effort expended to build secure compounds in a hurry on Kabul… Vice using the airfield you’ve had for decades with dozens of literal compounds on it. The North ECP was even “proof tested” in December of 19. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not really…vaccinated spread the virus at nearly the same rate as unvaccinated (CDC/John Hopkins). This vaccine started at “97% keeps you from getting the virus” to “well it’s more like 40%…me scuzie, but your symptoms will be reduced!” That’s not to say the vaccine is a bad idea for many people, but it’s incorrect to blanket say people should get it to “help others.” I acknowledge that elderly and those who are unhealthy getting vaccinated will contribute to less ICU beds, and that does help others indirectly. But this generalized statement is misapplied to the low-risk demographics.

Thinking I lived a charmed life in UPT by going to Willie and living in Sin City (Tempe).

True, but at least with my airplane, I get to decide who gets inside her. The price for such control...

Yes you are reading it entirely wrong. It is now fully approved for people 16 and older, and still under emergency use authorization for ages 12-15. There are multiple other cases for which the emergency use authorization still applies like administering a third dose for immunocompromised people. The emergency use auth doesn't magically disappear entirely because there are still untested age and vulnerability demographics. But I'm sure you understand the FDA legalese better than.. the FDA, whose front page of their website literally says it was fully approved, today. They also go on to say: The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product" But of course we already know that this isn't good enough for you. Because nothing will ever be. Yesterday it was "I'm waiting on full FDA approval" and tomorrow it'll be "Well the FDA is probably funded by george soros so who can trust them."

Always take a day of the weekend completely off. No better way to enjoy that day off than flying your own airplane. Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

Yup, you'll have time...might be a welcome break from the daily grind of UPT. I agree, it would suck to have your plane sitting in storage for a year, take it with you and keep her flying! Funny enough, you may have to fill out a "high risk activity" form so the Air Force knows you're doing "dangerous" things lol.

Ask and yeh shall receive:

From what I recall the volume of cases was always to be the same, just hte timing spread out over time. Either way, most sold the notion that 2 weeks to flatten the curve and Covid will start to wane. Here we are 18 months later and we are in the 3rd wave. The last 2 were higher than the 1st. Unfortunately what nobody will really admit is that Covid is not going away and we are to deal with it. It would be good to also broadcast that personnel health is your own responsibility and instead of hiding out eating cheetos, the US should focus on losing weight and being a healthier society. My 4 yr old loves Wall-E, its on every other day. Its sad that it is becoming our reality.

Thanks for posting this. Nice to see someone rationally explaining their viewpoint for a change.

I saw this on FB from a guy who broke down each countries air assets that are evacuating people from Afghanistan. I cannot vouch how accurate it is but lacking anything else I guess it’s a starting point. From Tom Cooper: Today is something like the 7th day of ‘non-combat evacuation’ from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul (‘Kabul IAP’). The airport is reported as ‘safe’, now, with a firm perimeter defence, and Afghan, US, and British troops guarding all the entries. However, it’s getting ever harder to approach the airport (see the end of report why). Regarding involved forces and their operations: Afghanistan - 400-500 AIA and NDS commandos are still there holding the perimeter of the Kabul IAP. What happened with up to 50,000 other personnel of the two agencies, nor if anybody in the Washington DC might ever come to the idea to try saving them – is unknown. Austria (this just ‘for the records’) - Austrian Chancellor Kurz proudly announced he’s against taking in ‘any more’ Afghans… Instead, Austrian government is going to pay one of neighbouring states to take in the refugees… Australia - After growing pressure at home, the Australian PM ordered the RAAF into action. - 1 C-17A flight evacuated 26 on/around 17 August, another 76 were evacuated by a RAF (British) transport on Thursday, 19 August. Bahrain - Is permitting aircraft carrying evacuees to stop and refuel – and that’s it (I’m always flashed by the much-praised ‘Islamic solidarity’) Belgium - 2 C-130s and 1 A.400M (from Luxemburg) are involved; couldn’t find additional details right now. Canada - 2 C-17As involved since Thursday, 19 August. Czech Republic - 3 flights by A.319s evacuated 170 Afghans that used to work with the Czech Army, and all of the embassy staff (most were picked out of Kabul by the Czech Army SF teams). No further action is planned. Denmark - 2 C-130Js are used to evacuate Danes and eligible Afghans to Islamabad, from there they’re flown to Denmakr by airliners chartered from Sweden, including SAS A.320NEOs registered as SE-ROG and SE-DYC, plus the DAT MD-83 OY-RUE. An SF detachment is involved, but I’m not sure if it’s still at Kabul IAP. EU - The usual lots of talking but, except for negotiations with ‘Taliban that are not recognised by the EU’, little action. The EU announced on Thursday, 19 August, that 100 EU staff and 400 Afghans working with the EU (and their families) had been evacuated, while 300 additional Afghans are still trying to leave. However, it also stated that it’s ‘mathematically impossible’ for the USA and allies to evacuate all the Afghan personnel that had worked for the foreign forces. Great to see the honourable politicians paid to plan and act came to the idea to think about this at all – and only now… Finland - 2 C.295M transport aircraft and a squad of Utti Special Jaeger Rgt (SF), facilitating evacuation of Finnish nationals. France - 1 A.400M and one C.130H-30 are evacuating people to Dhafra AB, in the UAE; from there, A.330s of the Air Force are evacuating to France. - Like Italians and Spaniards (see below), French RAID SF unit evacuated over 240 people from different spots in Kabul of the last few days – until ordered to stop, by US commanders. Germany - 7 A.400Ms are involved; they have evacuated over 2,000 people by now; - the KSK team and two H.145M helicopters at still at Kabul IAP, but in the light of US commanders prohibiting any ‘externals’ (at least until yesterday), they were standing idle for much of the last two days: first ops over Kabul were reportedly flown the last night. - So far, at least two German citizens were shot and wounded during diverse of ‘external’ evacuation ops outside Kabul IAP. Great Britain - Globemasters and Hercules of the RAF are involved, and evacuating via the UAE. Like the French, the 900 troops of the 2nd Para/16th Airborne Brigade were excelling at bringing additional evacuees to the Kabul IAP, until interrupted by US commanders, two days ago. London intends to evacuate 6,000-7,000 people, but no aid workers and none of 125 Afghan guards that used to protect its embassy (these were hired by a PMC). Hungary - taking out own citizens, and might accept some Afghans that worked for its government over the time (details remain scarce) India - Either on 16 or 17 August, 150-170 Indian nationals were escorted by the Taliban to Kabul IAP (yup, the embassy arranged this), and then flown out to Jamnagar and New Delhi by a C-17A of the Indian Air Force. Another 50 were flown out before the Taliban took over. Indonesia - 1 B737 (A-7305) evacuated 33 people from Kabul on 18 August, including 26 Indonesian, 5 Philippino, and 2 Afghan nationals. Italy - 4 C-130Js are evacuating to Kuwait, where 4 KC-767s are flying evacuees out to Italy. - Italians have teams from the 1st Tuscania Airborne Regiment and the 7th Trentino Alto Adige Regiment (both Carabinieri). They might have some paratroopers of the Folore Division in situ, too, and they seem to have run several ‘externals’ outside the Kabul IAP, until stopped by US commanders. There are reasonably lot of photos showing them ‘all over thee place’. Nominaly at least, the government in Roma plans to evacuate 2,500 Afghans that used to work for it. - Over 1,000 Afghans were evacuated to Italy as of yesterday, another 211 arrived the last night. Japan - 12 diplomatic personnel evacuated by foreign aircraft on Wednesday, 18 August. Netherlands - 2 C-103H-30s and running one flight each – a day. Probably to the UAE. - 1 A.330M tanker evacuated about 180 from Islamabad, on 20 August; a C-17 flew out 86 yesterday, another 160 were flown out by an A.330M early this morning. Poland - 3 C-130s involved, evacuating from Kabul to Uzbekistan; LOT airliners are flying people out (five sorties so far) - BTW, some of German media is using photos of Polish C-130s to ‘illustrate’ the Qatari deployment of US-made C-17s to fly the Taliban leadership from Doha to Qandahar…. Qatar - I love reporting about Qatari involvement, really – because it’s ‘murky waters’ all the way. Official statements say ‘continuing efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan… additional flights schedule for the upcoming days’, and they have also shown one of C-17 – perhaps the same that brought the Taliban leadership to Qandahar? – picking up evacuees in such a well-organised fashion, that even Hollywood would have a problem to organise it that way. But, have no doubts: Biden is – endlessly – thankful for Qatar’s ‘help in Afghanistan’ and the mainstream media is full of reports about Qatar ‘housing thousands of evacuees (until they can enter a third country)’. Some of French commentators are ‘overwhelmed’ by the Qatari help, too. Makes me wonder how much did Doha pay for that (if it had to pay anything at all)… Romania - 1 C-130 flight to Islamabad evacuated 2 Romanians, 1 British, 1 Bulgarian, and 1 US citizen. No new on 14 Romanians that were waiting to be evacuated as of Thursday. - 1 C-27J remains on hold for possible involvement. Slovakia - 1 C-27J flew out 24 people on 19 August. Slovenia - 5 Slovenes evacuated to Italy and France, also an Afghan translator that worked for them (was flown from Paris to Ljubljana by a Slovenian Falcon bizjet). Spain - At least 3 A.400Ms are involved, and evacuating to Dubai in the UAE. For example, one transport with 110 Afghan refugees – including 36 that used to work for the US administration – arrived at Torrejon yesterday. - Spain has two teams deployed at Kabul IAP: a squadron of EZAPAC (SF troops) and one from GEO (SWAT asset). They run several externals into Kabul over the last days – until stopped by US commanders, like everybody else. - Contrary to its troops, the government was a mess in regards of Afghanistan, initially, but now official Spain announced it is providing two additional military bases as transit stations for Afghan evacuees: Moron (de la Frontera) AB, near Seville, and (NAS) Rota, near Cadiz. South Africa - Nothing. Indeed, one is left to wonder what’s going to happen with hundreds of South African private military contractors (PMCs), known to have been in the country only about a week ago… Sweden - 2 C-130H/TP-85 transports involved. Switzerland - 230 people evacuated by foreign aircraft: 40 Afghans that used to work for the embassy are going to be allowed into Switzerland. Turkey - 3-4 A.400Ms and at least 1-2 C-130s involved - Turkish Army has 650 troops from the 2 Bolu Commando Brigade, 5 Hakkari Brigade, and some Gendarmes, reinforced by 120 Azerbijan Army troops, at Kabul IAP. UAE - United Arab Emirates reportedly ‘facilitated’ the evacuation of 8,500 people from Afghanistan in the last week. USA - Rear Admiral Peter Vasely is in overall command of the evacuation - Major-General Chris Donahue is in command of Kabul IAP - Ground units are including 2nd Bn/1st Marines, 1st Bn/8th Marines, 1st Combined Bn/194th Armour (Minn National Guard), 3rd BCT 82nd Airborne Division, and 4th Bn/31st Infantry 2nd BCT/10th Mountain Division. There is ever less to see of SF ops. - Top cover provided by F/A-18E/Fs from USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) - After holding back everybody else for days, Vasely and Donahue have granted permission for an US external: yesterday, at least 96 Afghans were evacuated by CH-47 helicopters to Kabul IAP. - 2,500 US nationals were evacuated over the last six days, and then 3,800 over the last 24 hours. It remains unclear how many US citizens are still in the country, but plan is now to fly 5,000 Afghan nationals to the UAE, on temporary basis (for 10 days), of course. After reviewing diverse videos of the last six days, my estimate is that about 30 people have been killed at or around Kabul IAP since evacuation began: 5-6 were shot, 7 crushed to death, up to 20 fell off USAF C-17As (not the usually reported ‘three’), or were overrun… BTW, the worst is yet to come, then the Taliban have handed over the security of Kabul to Sirajuddin Haqqani (who barely survived COVID-19, back in July) and his ‘Haqqani Network: Haqqani was sought for by the USA as much as OBL, and nobody knows how many Afghans were killed by UCAV strikes at ‘Haqqani headquarters’ over the years… Ah yes, and right on Haqqani’s heels, and in addition to the Taliban releasing thousands of the TTP from Afghan jails, another lovely piece of news is that the ‘Islamic State of Khorasan’ (IS-K or ISIS-K) – the Afghan branch of the Daesh – is active again: supposedly, it’s planning a terror attack on the Kabul IAP. Surely enough, the IS-K was smashed by the ‘non-fighting’ Afghan Army and the USA, back in 2019, and is it at war with the Taliban, but well: when one simply lets thousands of jihadists out of prisons in Afghanistan (thank you, Pakistan!)… As always, all updates and corrections are most welcome. BTW, anybody got the e-mail address of the US command at Kabul IAP? **** 'History-buffs' might recall that the RAF run its '1st' (or second) 'airlift' ever - to Kabul, when evacuating about 600 women and children from there, in 1928-1929. (Second if one counts the airlift in support of the British troops besieged by the Ottomans at al-Qut, in Mesopotamia, in 1916.)

Might need a bit of deconfliction and I would be careful who we strike there. The Taliban are going because Ahmad Massoud, (son of Ahmad Shah Massoud “Lion of the Panjshir"), has established a serious resistance threat. If you know the history his father was a legendary Anti-soviet guerilla fighter/leader who also hated and resisted the Taliban. He successfully defended the Panjshir Valley against the Soviets and Taliban. He was assassinated two days before the planes hit the tower and may well have shaped a different outcome in Afghanistan had he survived. Regardless, his son is the only one who can mount a serious internal challenge to the Taliban. Like his father he is highly educated (secondary school education in Iran, time at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Britain's West Point), Bachelors Degree in war studies from King's College London and a Master's Degree in international Politics form University of London. This will be the only serious challenge to the Taliban and they have a lot of backing from more moderate sympathizers in Europe.

Notice how you’re the only one responding to your own thread?

Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

None, you only need to pass B to be good to go. The AF lowered the standard a while ago. Sent from my SM-N975U using Baseops Network mobile app

Going down the same road as Pawnman, could it be that a majority of the public realizes that a minority of the population is shouldering the burden of military service and would like to acknowledge that service and sacrifice through whatever means they can? WW2 involved almost everyone, few were sheltered from it, so it was shared sacrifice with everyone in the same boat. Now, not so much.

'I don't trust the CDC': Trump rally attendee on why she is unvaccinated (cnn.com) Always do your own research.....

I’ll bite. Agree the situation has been handled poorly. I seriously doubt the Trump admin would’ve done any better (I’m sure many here will disagree). The pentagon attempted to slow roll Trump when he decided on a complete withdrawal & they used the same strategy with Biden. When he insisted (as Trump in all likelihood would have as well), senior military leadership was obviously ill prepared to carry out the order. Pandemonium has ensued. The only likely difference is that CJCS would likely have been fired by now under Trump which is a move I didn’t support at first, but I have to admit it’s not a good look for the Biden admin to continue this debacle without demanding accountability from the Pentagon.